Ottimizzazione di una testata per un motore diesel aeronautico

In questo elaborato di tesi ci si è occupati di riprogettare la testata del motore bicilindrico Twin Air del gruppo Fiat. La testata viene ridisegnata al fine di poter destinare questo motore, particolarmente leggero flessibile e dai bassi consumi, ad un uso aeronautico. In questa tesi si è appunto realizzata una nuova testata inserendovi 3 valvole, due di aspirazione e una di scarico, e 2 iniettori per cilinrdo. Una volta completato il disegno sono stati realizzati diversi test attraverso un software di simulazione. In particolare ci si è accertati che la camera di combustione realizzata possa resistere alle alte pressioni e temperature in gioco e che i fluidi scorrano al meglio all'interno dei condotti. Si sono utilizzati i risultati ottenuti per riprogettare iterattivamente la testa ed arrivare a un risultato finale soddisfacente.

Thermally induced all-optical inverter and dynamic hysteresis loops in graphene oxide dispersions

We experimentally study the temporal dynamics of amplitude-modulated laser beams propagating through a water dispersion of graphene oxide sheets in a fiber-to-fiber U-bench. Nonlinear refraction induced in the sample by thermal effects leads to both phase reversing of the transmitted signals and dynamic hysteresis in the input- output power curves. A theoretical model including beam propagation and thermal lensing dynamics reproduces the experimental findings. © 2015 Optical Society of America.

A Contabilidade de custos no município de Ponte de Lima: proposta modelo

Os municípios enfrentam, atualmente, a necessidade de melhorarem os níveis de eficiência, eficácia e economia considerando as limitações financeiras e orçamentais decorrentes da conjuntura atual. O enquadramento legal atualmente em vigor (POCAL e legislação complementar) obriga a implementação de um Sistema de Contabilidade de Custos (SCC) representando este sistema uma das principais iniciativas, com vista à melhoria da gestão dos recursos autárquicos. No entanto, a Contabilidade de Custos não tem sido, em Portugal, à semelhança do que sucede com outros países encarada como prioritária, situação que também se reflete nos municípios. Consciente desta necessidade e considerando que o município de Ponte de Lima não tem este sistema implementado o presente projeto consiste na definição de numa proposta de implementação do sistema de Contabilidade de Custos no município. Para além da proposta de modelo, e sua metodologia de implementação são ainda identificadas as principais dificuldades, bem como, a identificação de soluções possíveis para a sua resolução.Com este projeto constatou-se que não existe no município de Ponte de Lima a integração dos diferentes tipos de contabilidade, em particular o sistema de contabilidade de custos com os restantes sistemas. Com o trabalho desenvolvido, pretendeu-se, alertar, promover e fomentar junto Município de Ponte de Lima, a importância da utilização do SCC, como instrumento de gestão, instrumento este que será uma mais-valia para todos os intervenientes na Administração Publica, desde que bem utilizada pela classe política promovendo-se a accontability a melhor gestão dos recursos público.

Epidemiologia do mal das folhas da seringueira. 1. Ponte Nova-MG.

1989

AS CAUSAS E CONSEQUÊNCIAS DO IMPACTO SOCIOAMBIENTAL NO RIO CAUAMÉ – PRAIA DA PONTE, CURUPIRA, POLAR E CAÇARI

As questões que envolvem impactos sócio-ambientais devem ser discutidas e analisadas detalhadamente em todos os níveis da sociedade. Neste contexto, este artigo faz um diagnóstico das causas e conseqüências da urbanização e da presença maciça de banhistas no Rio Cauamé, analisando os trechos de maior incidência antrópica, fazendo um comparativo de impacto, risco e qualidade da água entre eles. Como metodologia utilizou-se o método dedutivo, com pesquisa quantitativa e qualitativa baseando-se em questionários aplicados à comunidade que reside próximo à área de estudo e aos banhistas que freqüentam o Rio Cauamé. Para avaliar as características da água, sedimentos, tipo de ocupação das margens, erosão e assoreamento, extensão da mata ciliar, cobertura vegetal, largura, estado de conservação e a balneabilidade nas praias do Rio Cauamé, foi utilizado o Protocolo de Avaliação Rápida de Callisto et al. (2002) e análises de laboratório. Este estudo mostra que o Rio Cauamé sofre conseqüências sócio-ambientais decorrentes do processo de urbanização ao longo do seu percurso; nos trechos com maior incidência antrópica, maiores são os impactos gerados.

A GEOGRAFIA NO ENSINO MÉDIO: UMA PONTE ENTRE A ESCOLA E A UNIVERSIDADE

O trabalho aqui apresentado foi desenvolvido na disciplina de estágio supervisionado IV do Departamento de Geografia da Universidade Federal do Ceará. A pesquisa teve o intuito de incentivar os alunos de escolas públicas através do ensino de Geografia a ingressarem na Universidade. O índice de aprovação de alunos de escolas públicas no vestibular é muito inferior aos de escola particular, muitos alunos de escolas públicas nunca nem ouviram falar em vestibular, não tem interesse, daí surgiu a idéia de desenvolver essa pesquisa em escolas públicas, para desenvolvermos atividades que incentivem a continuação dos estudos e que o Ensino Médio seja a ponte entre a Educação Básica e o Ensino Superior. Para tanto se utilizou como fundamentação teórica alguns autores que trabalham a cerca do ensino de Geografia, bem como o ensino em geral. Outra fonte básica para fundamentação teórica foram documentos que legalização o ensino como os Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais da Educação e a Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação e noticias no site do MEC em relação ao ENEM e ao Sistema Unificado de Seleção, que foi adotado pelas universidades federais como forma de ingresso. Ao longo da pesquisa viu-se como o ensino de Geografia pôde viabilizar essa ascensão dos alunos do ensino médio ao superior. Utilizou-se recursos para facilitar o ensino de geografia e tentarmos atrair os alunos para a continuidade dos estudos e mostrá-los que a geografia (os fenômenos) está no espaço vivido. Dessa maneira a pesquisa buscou mostrar os jovens a importância de se cursar um ensino superior através do ensino de geografia e com uso de materiais diferenciados tentou-se dinamizar as atividades facilitando a relação professor/ aluno.

Determining the psychosocial predictors of living, living-related, and posthumous organ donation

The worldwide organ shortage occurs despite people’s positive organ donation attitudes. The discrepancy between attitudes and behaviour is evident in Australia particularly, with widespread public support for organ donation but low donation and communication rates. This problem is compounded further by the paucity of theoretically based research to improve our understanding of people’s organ donation decisions. This program of research contributes to our knowledge of individual decision making processes for three aspects of organ donation: (1) posthumous (upon death) donation, (2) living donation (to a known and unknown recipient), and (3) providing consent for donation by communicating donation wishes on an organ donor consent register (registering) and discussing the donation decision with significant others (discussing). The research program used extended versions of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Prototype/Willingness Model (PWM), incorporating additional influences (moral norm, self-identity, organ recipient prototypes), to explicate the relationship between people’s positive attitudes and low rates of organ donation behaviours. Adopting the TPB and PWM (and their extensions) as a theoretical basis overcomes several key limitations of the extant organ donation literature including the often atheoretical nature of organ donation research, thefocus on individual difference factors to construct organ donor profiles and the omission of important psychosocial influences (e.g., control perceptions, moral values) that may impact on people’s decision-making in this context. In addition, the use of the TPB and PWM adds further to our understanding of the decision making process for communicating organ donation wishes. Specifically, the extent to which people’s registering and discussing decisions may be explained by a reasoned and/or a reactive decision making pathway is examined (Stage 3) with the novel application of the TPB augmented with the social reaction pathway in the PWM. This program of research was conducted in three discrete stages: a qualitative stage (Stage 1), a quantitative stage with extended models (Stage 2), and a quantitative stage with augmented models (Stage 3). The findings of the research program are reported in nine papers which are presented according to the three aspects of organ donation examined (posthumous donation, living donation, and providing consent for donation by registering or discussing the donation preference). Stage One of the research program comprised qualitative focus groups/interviews with university students and community members (N = 54) (Papers 1 and 2). Drawing broadly on the TPB framework (Paper 1), content analysed responses revealed people’s commonly held beliefs about the advantages and disadvantages (e.g., prolonging/saving life), important people or groups (e.g., family), and barriers and motivators (e.g., a family’s objection to donation), related to living and posthumous organ donation. Guided by a PWM perspective, Paper Two identified people’s commonly held perceptions of organ donors (e.g., altruistic and giving), non-donors (e.g., self-absorbed and unaware), and transplant recipients (e.g., unfortunate, and in some cases responsible/blameworthy for their predicament). Stage Two encompassed quantitative examinations of people’s decision makingfor living (Papers 3 and 4) and posthumous (Paper 5) organ donation, and for registering and discussing donation wishes (Papers 6 to 8) to test extensions to both the TPB and PWM. Comparisons of health students’ (N = 487) motivations and willingness for living related and anonymous donation (Paper 3) revealed that a person’s donor identity, attitude, past blood donation, and knowing a posthumous donor were four common determinants of willingness, with the results highlighting students’ identification as a living donor as an important motive. An extended PWM is presented in Papers Four and Five. University students’ (N = 284) willingness for living related and anonymous donation was tested in Paper Four with attitude, subjective norm, donor prototype similarity, and moral norm (but not donor prototype favourability) predicting students’ willingness to donate organs in both living situations. Students’ and community members’ (N = 471) posthumous organ donation willingness was assessed in Paper Five with attitude, subjective norm, past behaviour, moral norm, self-identity, and prior blood donation all significantly directly predicting posthumous donation willingness, with only an indirect role for organ donor prototype evaluations. The results of two studies examining people’s decisions to register and/or discuss their organ donation wishes are reported in Paper Six. People’s (N = 24) commonly held beliefs about communicating their organ donation wishes were explored initially in a TPB based qualitative elicitation study. The TPB belief determinants of intentions to register and discuss the donation preference were then assessed for people who had not previously communicated their donation wishes (N = 123). Behavioural and normative beliefs were important determinants of registering and discussing intentions; however, control beliefs influenced people’s registering intentions only. Paper Seven represented the first empirical test of the role of organ transplant recipient prototypes (i.e., perceptions of organ transplant recipients) in people’s (N = 465) decisions to register consent for organ donation. Two factors, Substance Use and Responsibility, were identified and Responsibility predicted people’s organ donor registration status. Results demonstrated that unregistered respondents were the most likely to evaluate transplant recipients negatively. Paper Eight established the role of organ donor prototype evaluations, within an extended TPB model, in predicting students’ and community members’ registering (n = 359) and discussing (n = 282) decisions. Results supported the utility of an extended TPB and suggested a role for donor prototype evaluations in predicting people’s discussing intentions only. Strong intentions to discuss donation wishes increased the likelihood that respondents reported discussing their decision 1-month later. Stage Three of the research program comprised an examination of augmented models (Paper 9). A test of the TPB augmented with elements from the social reaction pathway in the PWM, and extensions to these models was conducted to explore whether people’s registering (N = 339) and discussing (N = 315) decisions are explained via a reasoned (intention) and/or social reaction (willingness) pathway. Results suggested that people’s decisions to communicate their organ donation wishes may be better explained via the reasoned pathway, particularly for registering consent; however, discussing also involves reactive elements. Overall, the current research program represents an important step toward clarifying the relationship between people’s positive organ donation attitudes but low rates of organ donation and communication behaviours. Support has been demonstrated for the use of extensions to two complementary theories, the TPB and PWM, which can inform future research aiming to explicate further the organ donation attitude-behaviour relationship. The focus on a range of organ donation behaviours enables the identification of key targets for future interventions encouraging people’s posthumous and living donation decisions, and communication of their organ donation preference.

Design of self-turning controllers for two terminal HVDC link

This paper presents the design of self-tuning controllers for a two terminal HVDC link. The controllers are designed utilizing a novel discrete-time converter model based on multirate sampling. The nature of converter firing system necessitates the development of a two-step ahead self-tuning control strategy. A two terminal HVDC system study has been carried out to show the effectiveness of the control strategies proposed which include the design of minimum variance controller, pole assigned controller and PLQG controller. The coordinated control of a two terminal HVDC system has been established deriving the signal from inverter end current and voltage which has been estimated based on the measurements of rectifier end quantities only realized through the robust reduced order observer. A well known scaled down sample system data has been selected for studies and the controllers designed have been tested for worst conditions. The performance of self-tuning controllers has been evaluated through digital simulation.

A high voltage power converter with a frequency and voltage controller

A high voltage power converter is presented in this paper and is based on a Capacitor-Diode Voltage Multiplier (CDVM) supplied through an inverter. This power converter has the capabilities of generating variable high DC voltage with improved transient response. The simulation results which are presented in this paper verify that due to its fast transient response, this converter can be used as a high DC voltage source in many applications.

Multilevel converters in renewable energy systems

In photovoltaic, fuel cells and storage batteries, the low output DC voltage should be boosted. Therefore, a step-up converter is necessary to boost the low DC voltage for the DC link voltage of the inverter. The main contribution of this chapter is to electrical energy conversion in renewable energy systems based on multilevel inverters. Different configuration of renewable energy systems based on power converters will be discussed in detail. Finally, a new single inductor Multi-Output Boost (MOB) converter is proposed, which is compatible with the diode-clamped configuration. Steady state and dynamic analyses have been carried out in order to show the validity of the proposed topology. Then the joint circuit of the proposed DC-DC converter with a three-level diode-clamped converter is presented in order to have a series regulated voltage at the DC link voltage of the diode-clamped inverter. MOB converter can boost the low input DC voltage of the renewable energy sources and at the same time adjust the voltage across each capacitor to the desired voltage levels, thereby solving the main problem associated with capacitor voltage imbalance in this type of multilevel converter.

A bidirectional two-leg resonant converter for high voltage pulsed power application

A high voltage pulsed power supply is proposed in this paper based on oscillation between an inductor and a capacitor in an LC circuit. A two-leg resonant circuit, supplied through an inverter with an alternative voltage waveform, can generate output voltage up to four times an input voltage magnitude. Bipolar and unipolar modulations are used in a single phase inverter to analyse their effects on the proposed resonant converter. Simulations have been carried out to evaluate the proposed topology and control.

EMI in modern AC motor drive systems

In this paper, several aspects of high frequency related issues of modern AC motor drive systems, such as common mode voltage, shaft voltage and resultant bearing current and leakage currents, have been discussed. Conducted emission is a major problem in modern motor drives that produce undesirable effects on electronic devices. In modern power electronic systems, increasing power density and decreasing cost and size of system are market requirements. Switching losses, harmonics and EMI are the key factors which should be considered at the beginning stage of a design to optimise a drive system.